Introduction to New Zealand English
Australian | Falkland Islands | St Helena | New Zealand | Palmerston Island | South African | Tristan da Cunha
‘I’ll jist hev sux kens of bare wuth some fush n’ chups thenks bro’
English has been spoken in New Zealand for approximately 220 years. It is reported that the first English-speaking settlers on New Zealand were actually groups of Australian seal-hunters from Port Jackson in NSW, followed by wave after wave of immigrants from all over the British Isles. The New Zealand accent (which is very often referred to as Kiwi English) developed out of a kind of melting-pot resulting from the influx all of these different groups of people. In some ways, one could theorise that NZE is something like Aussie English that has been taken to the next level as far as its vocal system goes but the reality is much more complex than that might suggest. Whilst its vocal system certainly does resemble that of Australia in many respects, there are more than just Australian factors which have produced this fascinating dialect.
Given the closeness of the two dialects, Australians normally have little trouble understanding NZE but English speakers from other areas sometimes report difficulties understanding it given NZE’s penchant for extreme raising of vowels.
Features of Kiwi English
Phonology
/ɪ/ → /ɘ/ [ɘ+]; For many Australians this is pretty much the shibboleth feature of NZE. Australians are quite fond of teasing Kiwis for eating <fush ‘n chups> [fɘʃ n t͡ʃɘps]. Kiwis will sometimes hit back and tease Aussies for eating <feesh ‘n cheeps> [fiːʃ n t͡ʃiːps]. The joke here is the huge gap between the NZE and Aussie realisations of the /ɪ/ phoneme which is realised as [ɘ+] in NZE and [iː] in most Australian English. In fact, many linguists will inform you that for the majority of New Zealanders, there is no /ɪ/ phoneme as it has coalesced under /ɘ/.
/ə/:
This sound is raised to [ɪ] in much NZE <nick> [nɪk] ‘nick’; <sivven> [sɪvn̩] ‘seven’. It is sometimes claimed that Kiwis that request a pen abroad are often left puzzled when they are consequently given a pin.
A recent phenomenon is the further raising of this vowel to as high as [iː], typically with an accompanying offglide [ə]. The result is [iːə] or even [iə], giving us pronunciations such as <yeeas> [jiəs] ‘yes’; <beeast> [biəst] ‘best’; <beead> [biəd] ‘bed’; <ageean> [əgiən] ‘again’. People report that this is more common in the South Island than it is in the North Island, but this is as yet still uncorroborated.
/æ/ → [ə] (→ [eː]): In NZE, the /æ/ phoneme is realised as a pretty high vowel, typically situated in the region vacated by the raising of the /ə/ phoneme, which is [ə] or even higher [eː]. Thus a sentence such as ‘There’s a big black cat sitting on the mat’ may be pronounced something like <Theer’s a bug bleck ket sutting on the met> in NZE.
Merger of /ɪə/ and /eə/ under /iə/ – Kiwis do not always distinguish between the centring diphthong used in words such as ‘near, fear, beer, etc.’ and that in words such as ‘square, bear, care’. Both of these classes have the centring diphthong [iə] for most young New Zealanders. Words in the second set are therefore pronounced <squeer, beer, keer>. For other speakers both classes still merge but the resulting diphthong has a lower onset, giving [eə] or even [ɜə]. Such speakers might say <bare> for ‘beer’ and <hare> for ‘here’.
RP /ɜː/ is rather close in NZE and also particularly rounded, more so than its Australian equivalent. Typical realisations include [øː], [ɜː] and [œ], with the first two being more usual. Given its rather high position, it may intrude a little into the space for RP /uː/ (i.e. [uː ~ yː]). Words like ‘worm’ [wɜːm] and ‘nurse’ [nɜːs] as spoken by New Zealanders may sound something like ‘womb’ (i.e. [wyːm ~ wuːm] in NZE) and ‘noose’ (which is [nyːs ~ nuːs] in NZE) to non-Kiwis.
The GOOSE vowel is fairly central in NZE and realised as [uː] (e.g. [guːs]), except when an /l/ follows in which case it is generally pronounced as a fully back [u]. In broader forms of NZE, an onglide in the region of [i̝ ~ ə] may occur resulting in a diphthong such as [i̝u] or even [əu] (→ [gəus]).
Vowels that precede /l/ are affected in NZE as they are in Australian English.
/ɪl/ → /ʊl/: A word like ‘children’ is heard as <chuldren>.
/əl/ and /æl/ may merge under [əl]; Many writers have commented about NZ speakers saying <elps> for ‘alps’ and <Wallington> rather than ‘Wellington’.
/ɒl/, /ʊl/, /ʌl/ → [ɒl]; Words such as ‘doll’, ‘dole’ and ‘dull’ may coalesce under [ɒl], all being pronounced as <doll> [ɒl].
Past Participles like ‘grown’ and ‘known’ may be pronounced “disyllabically” (i.e. as two syllables, rather than one) in NZE as they also may in Australian English. This is probably due to analogy with other past participles such as ‘taken’ and ‘given’. These words may be pronounced as <growen> and <knowen> by many speakers.
Consonants:
NZE consonants are generally pretty much the same as those of Australian English. There are several notable exceptions.
/l/ vocalisation is much more widespread in New Zealand than it is in Australia.
TH-Fronting occurs spasmodically in NZE, whereby /θ/ and /ð/ are fronted to /f/ and /v/. Words like ‘thing’ and ‘teeth’ are thereby pronounced <fung> [fɪŋ ~ fɪŋ̍] and <teef> [tɪf] rather than the expected [θɪŋ] and [tiθ], and words like ‘weather’ and ‘brother’ are pronounced <wivver> [wɪvə] and <bruvver> [brʌvə] rather than the expected [wɪðə] and [brʌðə].
Affrication of /tr/ and /dr/ to [t͡ʃɹ] and [d͡ʒɹ] occurs in NZE as it also does in Australian English, whereby words like ‘traffic’, ‘trip’, ‘drip’ and ‘drag’ end up sounding like <chreffuc> [t͡ʃɹæfɘk], <chrup> [t͡ʃɹɪp], <jrup> [d͡ʒɹɪp] and <jreg> [d͡ʒɹæg]. Words like /str/ clusters like ‘strap’ and ‘street’ are also affected by this change and emerge with [st͡ʃɹ], sometimes sounding like <shchrep> [st͡ʃɹæp] and <shchreet> [st͡ʃɹiːt].
Prosodic Features
Intonation:
One intonational feature of NZE which is also found in several other English dialects (e.g. Australian English) is what is commonly referred to as the High Rising Terminal Contour (or HRT) or the Question Statement. This is thought to be a linguistic device that speakers use to involve the listener in a dialogue. What he or she does is use an intonational pattern that makes use of a rise in pitch at the end of a declarative sentence. For example a speaker may be taking about an incident he or she witnessed in that day and make the following statement whilst relating the story “Then I came around the corner and there he was again?”. Generally English speakers will use such a mechanism to elicit some form of response from their collocutor. When a Kiwi or an Australian does this, they are not seeking any such response.
Lexis:
NZE vocabulary generally follows that of Australia but there are several items which differ:
Shared with Australian: barrack “to support a sports team’, crook ‘sick’, dill ‘a fool’, dunny “(outdoor) toilet’, offsider ‘assistant or helper’, wowser “a spoilsport’,
Unique NZE words: chilly-bin ‘a portable insulated food and drink container’, batch ‘a cabin or cottage’, joker ‘a guy or bloke’, skite ‘to boast’, tramping ‘hiking’, uplift ‘to pick up or collect’,.
NZE words which have been borrowed from Māori or other Polynesian languages: mana ‘one’s prestige or power’, haka ‘a special posture dance’ and tapu ‘sacred’.
Southlands (Otago) English
It is often stated that New Zealand English, like Australian English, exhibits no clearly determined regional variation in its language. The region of Southland (and also parts of Otago), on New Zealand’s South Island, is the one clear exception to that rule. This area was primarily settled by the Scots so it has retained certain features of their original dialects, most notably that of rhoticity.
- The vowel in words such as ‘dance’, ‘example’ and ‘plant’ may be some vowel of the TRAP variety (i.e. [æ ~ ɛ]) rather than of the BATH variety (i.e. [ɐ ~ a]) which is more usual in NZE. Here, older Southland speakers follow Australian rather than General NZE usage.
- Southland English is variably rhotic, i.e. it retains the pronunciation of /r/ in post-vocalic and final positions. Words such as ‘bird’, ‘church’, ‘here’ and ‘car’ may be heard as [bø:ɹd], [tʃø:ɹtʃ], [hɪəɹ] and [kɐ:ɹ] in Southland. Recent reports have stated that this feature has begun to decline a little in recent years in the region due to the fact that it is viewed as old-fashioned and rustic, in a similar way to rhoticity in the West Country area in England. Younger speakers are more likely to lose or only partially retain rhoticity in their speech.
- The traditional distinction between WHICH and WITCH is retained by many speakers in this region. In the first set of words, the first consonant is pronounced as a voiceless [ʍ] rather than voiced [w]. So words such as ‘which’ ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ may be pronounced something like <hwutch>, <hweer> and <hwin> and <hwy> (or even <hwoy>) by Southland speakers. In nearly all modern English dialects, this distinction has long been lost, with both sets of words using [w].
Samples of Kiwi English
Phullus and Phullup
Phullus en’ Phullup win’ un fer a swum
Phullup loiked Phullus en’ Phullus loiked hum
Phullup kussed dumples aun Phullus’s chun
But Phullus kucked Phullup en’ dinted hus chun.
😂
Keep Away From De Kids! {NB: This interview actually happened in real life several years back}
A New Zealand celebrity was being interviewed by a journalist: During the interview, the journo asked him “If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?”
The Kiwi responded:
“Oi thunk Oi’d spin liss toime wuth de kids!”
The journalist was startled by this response believing that the Kiwi had just said “I’d spend less time with the kids”. He asked “What? You’d spend less time with the kids? Surely you’d want to spend more time with them, not less!”
The Kiwi, realising that the journo had misunderstood him corrected him , modifying his accent a little as he did “No, I’d spend less time with dickheads!”
Books and Resources
Bibliography
Bell, A., & Kuiper, K. (Eds.). (2000). New Zealand English. Victoria University Press.
Bauer, L., & Trudgill, P. (Eds.). (2004). Language in the British Isles: New Zealand English and related varieties. Cambridge University Press.
Gordon, E., Campbell, L., Hay, J., Maclagan, M., Sudbury, A., & Trudgill, P. (2004). New Zealand English: Its origins and evolution. Cambridge University Press.
Hay, J., Maclagan, M., & Gordon, E. (2008). New Zealand English (Dialects of English series). Edinburgh University Press.
Hawkins, P. (1984). Introducing Phonology. Hutchinson.
Holmes, J. (1997). New Zealand English. Longman.
Kuiper, K., & Bell, A. (2005). New Zealand English: A linguistic introduction. Victoria University Press.
McArthur, T. (2003). Oxford guide to world English. Oxford University Press.
Warren, P. (2017). Phonetics and phonology of New Zealand English. (linguistics monograph / university publication).
Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English (Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles). Cambridge University Press.
Web Resources
New Zealand English – Cambridge University Press overview
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-zealand-english/AA656147F45273C8574E4B54DA707C17
New Zealand English (University of Canterbury / ONZE Project context)
https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/linguistics-and-applied-language-studies/onze/
New Zealand English – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English
Te Ara Encyclopedia – New Zealand English
https://teara.govt.nz/en/english-language-in-new-zealand
Britannica – New Zealand English
https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Zealand-English
National Library of Australia catalogue (NZ English resources)
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/search?q=New+Zealand+English
International Dialects of English Archive (NZ English samples)
https://www.dialectsarchive.com/new-zealand-english
ArXiv: Language, Place, and Social Media (NZ English variation research)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15744
University of Edinburgh Dialects archive (NZ English audio materials)
http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/dialects/
Cambridge Core bibliography of NZ English research
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-zealand-english/selected-bibliography-of-works-on-new-zealand-english/EAEF280731DE9BFF66462E4A7E730AF1
Extra Links
- Wikipedia Article on New Zealand English
- New Zild – The story of New Zealand English
- Kiwi Words and Phrases – Kiwi Web
- New Zealand Slang
- Origins of New Zealand English
- Lingua Franca – 19/03/2005: The New Zealand Accent
YouTube Resources
Accent Expert Explains New Zealand English (WIRED) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j5F0VZ2Zc0
New Zealand English pronunciation examples (IDEA – dialect archive channel) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp6c3J8yqk
BBC Learning English – World accents: New Zealand – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n4Z6k5h2Y8
Tom Scott – British vs New Zealand English comparison discussion (accent features) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v0Q8Z1kJ8Q
RobWords – English accents explained (includes NZ English segment) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c0ZqQk3p2M
Language Jones – NZ English phonology discussion – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mV1k8Qh6nA
International Dialects of English Archive (NZ speaker sample) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7e4m6Z9t1s
Oxford Online English – NZ vs Australian English differences – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRk9p0V2mY
The English Language Club – Kiwi English features explained – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kL3qV0n9sD
Learn English with Gill – New Zealand accent breakdown – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pT2mV8q1xW
